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Dodge was born in Niles, Michigan, where his father ran a foundry and machine shop. John and his younger brother, Horace, were inseparable as children and as adults. The origins of the Dodge family lie in Stockport, England, where their ancestral home still stands.

In 1886, the Dodge family moved to Detroit, where John and Horace took jobs at a boiler maker plant. In 1894 they went to work as machinists at the Dominion Typograph Company in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.[2] While John was the sales-minded managerial type, his brother Horace was a gifted mechanic and inveterate tinkerer. Using a dirt-proof ball bearing Horace invented and patented, in 1897 Dodge arranged a deal for the brothers to join with a third-party investor to manufacture bicycles. Within a few years, they sold the bicycle business and in 1900 used the proceeds of the sale to set up their own machine shop in Detroit.[2]

In their first year of business, the Dodge brothers' company began making parts for the automobile industry. In 1902 the Dodge brothers won a contract to build transmissions for the Olds Motor Vehicle Company upon which they built a solid reputation for quality and service. However, the following year they turned down a second contract from Olds to retool their Detroit plant at Hastings Street and Monroe Avenue[3] to build engines for Henry Ford in a deal that included a share position in the new Ford Motor Company. By 1910, John Dodge and his brother were so successful they built a new plant in Hamtramck, Michigan.[2]

For ten years (1903–1913), the Dodge brothers' business was a Ford Motor Company supplier, and Dodge worked as vice president of the Ford company.[4] He left Ford in 1913, and in 1914 he and Horace formed Dodge Brothers to develop their own line of automobiles. They began building motor trucks for the United States military during the arms buildup for World War I, and in October 1917 they produced their first commercial car. At war's end, their company produced and marketed both cars and trucks.

Because of his temper and often crude behavior, the red-haired [5] Dodge was seen as socially unacceptable to most of the well-heeled elite of Detroit.[citation needed] Nevertheless, his wealth made him an influential member of the community and he became active in Republican Party politics in Michigan.

Following Ivy (Hawkins) Dodge's death from tuberculosis, he secretly married Isabelle Smith (who was his housekeeper) in Walkerville, Ontario, on December 8, 1902.[6] They separated in 1905 and quietly divorced in 1907; the marriage was kept secret until after the death of his third wife.[6] Shortly after the divorce from Isabelle, Dodge married his secretary, Matilda Rausch (1883–1967). Dodge had three more children with Matilda:

Horace died the following December, and in 1925 their widows sold the Dodge Brothers automobile business to Dillon Read, investment bankers, for $146 million (equivalent to $1.3 billion in 2015[9]).[10] Dodge's newborn daughter Anna Margaret died of the measles before age five. His son Daniel drowned in the waters off Manitoulin Island after falling overboard while being transported to hospital following an accident involving dynamite. He had just recently married, at age 21.[11][12]

In 1957, the Wilsons donated their 1,500-acre (6.1 km2) Meadow Brook Farm, including Meadow Brook Hall, Sunset Terrace and all its other buildings and collections, along with $2 million (equivalent to $40 million in 2015[9]), to Michigan State University to establish an extension campus. In 1963, the Michigan State University-Oakland was renamed Oakland University.